Accessing Finance in Kenya

Most women in Kenya work in the agricultural sector and produce most of the agricultural produce in the country. However, when it comes to accessing credit and other forms of agricultural finance, women’s access drops quickly.

Within the non-agricultural sector of the informal economy, women are also very active in informal cross-border trade, where they are involved in a large volume of the goods traded across borders. Similar to those in the agricultural sector, women in informal cross border trade face several huddles in accessing finance.

Public and private institutions in Kenya have identified women’s challenges in accessing finance and have established various programmes to bridge the gap.
angle-left Uwezo Fund

Uwezo Fund

Brief description

The Uwezo Fund is a flagship programme for vision 2030 aimed at enabling women, youth and persons with disability access finances to promote businesses and enterprises at the constituency level, thereby enhancing economic growth towards the realization of the same and the Millennium Development Goals No.1 (eradicate extreme poverty and hunger) and 3 (promote gender equality and empower women).

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Product

Uwezo Fund  

 

Brief description

The National Uwezo Fund Oversight Board in collaboration with the Ministry of Devolution and Planning will roll out a Uwezo Fund Capacity Building Programme to prepare potential beneficiaries of Uwezo Fund. Interested Youth and Women groups will be trained for an initial period of three months before they can apply for the Uwezo Fund through the Uwezo Fund Capacity Building Programme. The Uwezo Fund Capacity Building Program will be available for one year.

The Uwezo Fund Capacity Building Program will focus on four key areas namely;

  • General Information on Uwezo Fund
  • Business Development Services and Mentoring
  • Table Banking
  • Access to 30 percent Public Procurement tender opportunities for Youth, Women and persons with disability.

Once the Fund has been fully rolled out, interested registered youth and women groups can visit the nearest Constituency Development Fund office to register for the Uwezo Fund capacity building program.

Interest rate

NIL / Administration fee of 3% (of loan amount) charged  

Grace period

6 months, payable in eight instalments

Duration

Between 12 – 24 Months.

Ceiling amount

Up to Kshs.500,000 per group.  

Requirements

  • The youth or women group should be registered with the Department of Social Services or the Registrar of Societies with a membership of 9 – 15 members. A Certified copy of Registration Certificate will be required.
  •  The youth group membership must be between 18 and 35 years of age.
  • Preference will be granted to groups that have been in existence for at least six (6) months. Minutes of group meetings will be required.
  • The groups should be based and operating within the Constituency it seeks to make an application for consideration for a loan from the Uwezo Fund.
  • The group should operate a table banking (Chama) structure where members make monthly contributions according to the groups’ internal guidelines. Evidence of monthly contributions will be required.
  • The group should hold a bank account in the name of the group. Bank statements will be required.
  • They should be recommended by the Chief of the location.
  • Photocopies of IDs and PINs of all the members will be required.
  • List of members that include their ID card numbers and telephone numbers.

Contacts

 

Uwezo Fund

Lonrho House, 16th Floor, Standard St.

P. O. Box 42009 - 00100                                               

Nairobi Kenya                                                                                                   

Phone +254 776 154 204 / Hotline +254 776 154 210

Complaints +254 776 154 210    

 

Email;                                                    

Website;

 
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The African Development Bank partners with EAC, COMESA & ECOWAS Regional economic blocks to implement the 50 Million African Women Speak Networking Platform Project.The platform is intended to empower millions of women in Africa to start, grow, and scale up businesses by providing a one-stop shop for their specific information needs. Click on the image for more information

 

50MAWS Project engages East African Financial institutions for more financial inclusion. Click on the photo above for the full story